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For the recipient of the Victoria Cross and MP, see Gordon Campbell, VC

For the Scottish Conservative politician, see Gordon Campbell, Baron Campbell of Croy

Gordon Muir Campbell, BA, MBA, MLA, (born January 12, 1948) is 34th Premier of British Columbia. He is the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party, which holds a majority in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

Biography

Though born into a well-off Vancouver family, Gordon Campbell was forced into quite different circumstances by the suicide of his father when Campbell was 13 years old. His mother was left to raise him and three siblings on a reduced income in a small apartment.

He attended public school (University Hill Secondary School) in Vancouver. Campbell then went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, studying urban management and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. He later earned a Master of Business Administration degree in 1978 through night study at Simon Fraser University.

Campbell spent two years in Yola, Nigeria, where he taught in a local secondary school as a volunteer for Canadian University Service Overseas. On his return to Canada he worked as an executive assistant to Art Phillips, then mayor of Vancouver, from 1973 to 1976. Campbell then left politics temporarily to become a realty developer, eventually building two Vancouver hotels.

He was elected to the Vancouver city council in 1984, and from 1986 to 1993, Campbell served as the mayor of Vancouver for three successive terms. He has also served as chair of the Greater Vancouver Regional District and president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

Campbell and his wife Nancy, a school principal at Howe Sound Secondary School in Squamish, BC, have been married since 1970. They have two sons, Geoffrey and Nicholas.

Campbell became leader of the BC Liberal Party in 1993, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly next year in a Vancouver-Quilchena by-election. He has represented the Vancouver-Point Grey riding since 1996. His party failed to be elected to power in the 1996 BC provincial election despite winning a plurality of the vote, and he remained opposition leader under New Democratic Party Premiers Glen Clark, Dan Miller and Ujjal Dosanjh. Under Clark and his successors the NDP's approval rating dropped into the low teens, and in the BC election of 2001 Campbell's Liberals defeated the NDP, taking 77 of 79 seats in the legislature.

Politics

Although he is leader of a nominally liberal party, Campbell is better identified as a small-c conservative. The BC Liberal Party has no formal ties to the Liberal Party of Canada, and is essentially a centre-right coalition of federal Conservatives and right-leaning federal Liberals.

The Campbell government

A day after taking office, Campbell announced a personal income tax reduction of about 25 per cent, to be phased in over two years. Cuts were applied to every tax bracket; the tax rate on the first $30,000 of income was cut from 8.4% to 6.05%, for instance, while the top tax rate for income over $85,000 was cut from 19.7% to 14.7%. The reductions gave British Columbia (tied with Ontario) the lowest provincial income tax rates for people earning up to $60,000. Campbell stated that the tax cuts would stimulate the economy. Government critics countered, stating the cuts would do little to help those of average income; an individual making $30,000 annually had savings of about $500, whereas a person bringing home $150,000 per year had savings of about $5,800. The top 0.03% of taxpayers received 14.00% of the total tax cut. Because of the cumulative nature of the tax cut, with those earning more saving a higher amount in proportion to their income, the tax cut was far different from the opposition's favoured progressive approach to taxation. . Campbell's government also reduced corporate taxes.

To pay for the tax cuts, the government reduced the staff complement in its ministries, cut programs and services, closed hospitals and schools, and announced a plan to eliminate one-third of all regulations then in force. The popularity of his government declined through late 2003 and early 2004. In spring 2003, surveys showed the Liberals trailing the NDP in public opinion for the first time since 1994.

In April/May 2004, Campbell narrowly avoided a General Strike after introducing Bill 37 in the provincial legislature. The Bill was intended to force striking hospital workers back on the job, while imposing a 15% retroactive wage rollback, layoffs, extension of the workweek, and outsourcing of union jobs. The passing of the bill led to immediate striking throughout BC, in both the public and private sectors. The BC Federation of Labour announced plans for a general strike, set to begin May 3, which would have included teachers, transit and ferry workers, mill, steel and forestry workers, garbage and city maintenance workers, as well as library, community and recreation centre employees. On May 2, Justice Robert Bowman of the BC Supreme Court ruled that the healthcare unions were in contempt for continuing the withdrawal of services. Due to the threat of large fines, the hospital workers union signed a compromise with the BC Government and the strike was called off.

Gordon Campbell is one of several BC politicians who has endorsed the idea of electoral reform. Campbell's Liberals received the popular vote in the 1996 provincial election, yet lost in overall seat count to the New Democratic Party of British Columbia. Because of this, Campbell questioned the NDP mandate, and therefore the legitimacy of the first past the post system. Prior to the 2001 election, Gordon Campbell made political reform and electoral reform a campaign promise. The 2001 election further exposed the non-proportional nature of the electoral system, this time in favor of Campbell's Liberals, who received fifty-seven percent of the popular vote, but won ninety-seven percent of the seats.

Following through with their promises of reform, the new Campbell administration introduced fixed-term elections for BC, departing from the standard British parliamentary procedure. Campbell also founded a Citizens' Assembly composed of randomly-selected British Columbians from around the province. The Assembly advised adopting the Single Transferable Vote system in future elections. Whether or not to adopt BC-STV was put to a province-wide referendum; the 57.4% in favour fell slightly short of the sixty percent required to pass. The Liberals have been criticised for not adequately supporting discussion of the issue (e.g., no televised debate prior to the referendum). A poll held by Ipsos-Reid one month before the election showed only 50% of British Columbians were "Aware Of Either Citizens’ Assembly Or Upcoming Referendum". A second referendum has been promised for 2008, to allow for greater discussion.

Campbell removed the six-year long tuition freeze that was placed on the BC universities and colleges by the NDP government. The tuition freeze had made BC tuition rates among the lowest in Canada. Since Gordon Campbell's election, tuition fees have risen by an average of 88.0% however current tution rates are still within Canadian averages.

Premier Campbell was a key figure in promoting Vancouver's successful bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Since taking office, Campbell has faced a number of issues including the imposition of tariffs by the U.S. government on the importation of BC softwood, forest fires, an ongoing infestation in central BC forests of the Mountain Pine Beetle, and a momentary downturn in tourism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the outbreak in Vancouver of SARS in the spring of 2003.

He has also had to deal with a series of scandals, both personal and political. In the "Doug Walls affair," Doug Walls, a relation of Campbell by marriage, was awarded a government contract, which resulted in Gordon Hogg (the MLA for Surrey-White Rock, and Minister of Children and Families) resigning from cabinet in 2003. Campbell was arrested for drunk driving in January 2003 in Hawaii. He pleaded no contest to the charges, and was given a fine and a 90-day license suspension; his personal popularity suffered, but there did not seem to be any long-term negative effects for his government. In December 2003, the Legislative buildings were raided, and two Liberal staffers were charged with drug-related crimes.

Campbell has occasionally scored lower in poll ratings than his opponent, NDP leader Carole James. He has consistently trailed his party in popularity.

Many argue that during his first election as Liberal leader in 1996, British Columbians' unease with him helped the NDP hold onto enough of its seats from 1991 to win re-election, and keep Reform Party supporters from moving to the Liberals, which many claim helped the NDP to hold onto various seats in the Interior of the province.

In the May 17, 2005 election, Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals won a second majority government (albeit with fewer seats), making Campbell the first premier of BC to win a second term in 22 years.

External links

• Official biography (PDF file)
• Gordon Campbell's official MLA site
• Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Gordon Campbell
• Maclean's interview with Campbell, 1999
• "Campbell Contradiction" (Globe and Mail profile, April 2005)
• CBC profile, April 2005

• 1947 births
• British Columbia premiers
• Living people
• Mayors of Vancouver
• Vancouverites